1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a cleaning apparatus designed to clean a wide array of electronic devices, and more particularly, to a cleaning apparatus having two cleaning functions designed to clean the internal and external components of electronic equipment, such as, for example, sensors, rollers, print heads, platens, etc.
2. Background of Related Art
Heretofore, an alcohol-based solution (e.g., isopropyl alcohol) has been used with some success to clean the rollers and reading, writing or scan heads (hereinafter “r/w/s heads) of printers, facsimile machines, copiers, photo and optic sensors, chips, internal optics, smart card readers, smart chips, bar code encoders and decoders, magnetic readers, scanners and/or the like. However, it is known that while alcohol-based solutions have some success in cleaning the above-mentioned devices, alcohol-based solutions can detrimentally affect the life of the more sensitive, internal working components of these devices. For example, repeated cleaning with alcohol-based solutions can affect the elasticity of the feed or follower rollers/bars and/or r/w/s heads.
Accordingly, it should be apparent that different components within the same electronic device require different cleaning solutions or different cleaning solution applicators for effective cleaning. For example, while the thermal printer head on a label printer generally requires an alcohol-based solution as a cleaning solution and an angled or slanted applicator in order to effect proper cleaning thereof, the roller and platens of the label printer generally require a non-alcohol-based rubber rejuvenator solution and a flat applicator for effective cleaning.
The use of a cleaning instrument having a single-shaped applicator on one end thereof and including a single cleaning solution is well known. A drawback to such a cleaning instrument is that the instrument is limited to the cleaning of a specific component of the electronic device and is limited to providing a single cleaning solution. Accordingly, such a cleaning instrument is ineffective in cleaning other components of the electronic devices in which clean components are crucial to the efficient operation of the electronic device. As such, at least one additional and separate cleaning instrument including a second applicator and a second cleaning solution is required.
Certain components of electronic devices require more than one cleaning function or step. For example, in order to properly clean a label printer having adhesive residue stuck on the printer head a user must first remove the adhesive residue from the printer head by using a first instrument (e.g., a wiper) to apply a first solution (e.g., an adhesive-removing solution) to the printer head and then by using a second instrument (e.g., a scraper) to remove the emulsified adhesive from the printer head. Following this step, the user needs to clean the first solution off of the printer head by using a third instrument (e.g., a wiper or swab) containing an amount of a second solution (e.g., isopropyl alcohol) to wipe the second solution onto the printer head. As is evident, multiple instruments are thus required to accomplish one overall cleaning function.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a new, simple, yet effective cleaning apparatus which can accomplish multiple cleaning functions (e.g., cleaning and removing contaminants from different types of components of electronic devices) in a single apparatus.